The high school football playoffs continue Friday in all seven classes. Here are five things gleaned from the early rounds:
Routine is important: Football is a game of repetition — everything from practicing plays to seating on the bus to the number of days off between games. Doing things the same way each game pays off. For some teams with great expectations, Saturday afternoon football just didn't feel right. Eleven higher seeds across Classes 5A and 4A lost Saturday, all of them in games played under the sun. It's called Friday Night Lights for a reason.
Tough guys finish first: It's long been believed the teams that stick to the ground go further in the postseason than pass-first teams, largely because of the likelihood of poor weather this time of year. That holds true, but running teams had just as much success Saturday in ideal conditions. Truth is, a ball-control, turf-gobbling rushing attack is less haphazard and easier to maintain. Unlike the professional game, where it's all about throwing the ball, high school football is still dependent on the running game.
Who you play matters: Mound Westonka, Minneapolis North and Bloomington Kennedy came off exceptional regular seasons, but all faced questions regarding the quality of their schedules. Those concerns proved valid as each lost in the second round to teams that had been battle-tested during the season. As my colleague David La Vaque likes to say, quoting from Proverbs 27:17, "Iron sharpens iron."
No. 1 seeds are there for a reason: There were 52 No. 1 seeds in the playoffs, and just six have lost going into this week's section finals: Sauk Rapids-Rice (Section 8, 5A); Mound Westonka (Section 6, 4A); Rochester Lourdes (Section 1, 3A); Minneapolis North (Section 4, 2A); New York Mills (Section 6, 1A) and BOLD (Section 5, 1A). That gives top seeds a winning percentage of .885. The seedings, however they were determined, were spot-on, at least at the top.
The best round of the season: In many sports — hockey, for instance — the section finals are considered the most intense, competitive round of the postseason as teams shoot for state tournament berths. Football is much the same. The section finals are chock full of rivalries. Here are two worth watching: The Class 5A, Section 5 final pits intra-district rivals, Robbinsdale Cooper at Robbinsdale Armstrong. And the Class 2A, Section 1 final sends Caledonia, an eight-time state titlist, to Chatfield to play the defending state champion and No. 1-ranked team.
